Size Really Does Matter!

Now, regardless of where your mind went, what you thought of when you saw the title for this newest post, what I was referring to is food portion sizes.

I started an experiment some months ago, to really pay attention to the size portions I was eating. I was curious about this because I see so many clients who have weight concerns. So I decided to check the portion sizes of everything I ate. My goal was not to loose weight, but to find out how we can be tricked in to eating way to much at one sitting.

The result of this experiment was that I lost 10 pounds. I also became very aware of what others were eating, I found myself staring at other diners when I ate out, watching with fascination as they loaded up on huge mounds of food. I wondered if they knew that a plate the size of a hub cap covered with food was enough to feed a family of 13.

I really did not change what I was eating, just how much. It's tricky, because when you check things like those little serving bags of chips you get with a sandwich when you order out, you find that the tiny bag has two servings in it. Look at a mounds bar and you find it's not one, but two servings. A serving of cereal is 1/4 to 1/2 of a cup, depending on the brand. Put it in a bowl and 1/4 of a cup of cereal looks like just enough to feed one mouse. A serving of cheese is just a couple of ounces, which again, looks like enough to feed a mouse.

It reminds me that some theories on how to eat right would say that we are born to eat a hand full of food at a setting, and some would say that eating less calories extends your life. Now I can definitely hold a pie in one hand, but I don't think that is what they meant.

I found that eating one person portions satisfied my hunger, but it returned sooner than I expected and I added a few meals a day to my regular 4 meal schedule. I still lost weight. Maybe this meandering will come in handy for someone out there. I know that people tend to start thinking about loosing weight in the spring, which is a good time to do it because you really don't need that winter fat to keep you warm anymore. Add that to the fact that the dreaded bathing suit weather is just around the corner and you get a big handful of motivation to go with you little hand fulls of food.

So now I'm wondering, who came up with the big gulp? Who invented the double cheese burger with bacon? Who decided that plates at a restaurant should be the size of a 50 gallon barrel top? And how did we all get tricked into thinking that is how we should eat?

It brings to mind a dear friend, who had traveled the world as the wife of a Ambassador of a large county. She was in the US after many years away, and commented on how easy it was to find food here. Any time of day or night she mused, all you have to do is hit the nearest quick stop and load up. She thought 24 hour diners were amazing and the selection at the grocery store was mind boggling, all of which we Americans take for granted. To her, it was easy to see why the obesity rates are so high here. She assured me that the whole world was not like that.

Thinking about loosing weight? Next time you look at your full plate, imagine you are a mouse, and eat what you need to feel full, because I can assure you, size matters.

Early Spring Morning

Tiny snow flakes falling,
maybe it's an illusion.
Robins hop about shivering,
spring flower buds wear white crowns.
Nothing lasts forever, thank heavens!

He Said That?!

That was stupid and thoughtless and I'm sure none of us would ever say anything like that.
I have a sister with developmental disabilities and I'm sure she can kick Obama's ass in a bowling match. I'm not upset though, I mean, when is that last time the Special Olympics had any amount of media coverage? I'll take it, thank you.

Painting a Life

I was working on a painting over the weekend. It's a landscape of a tropical island with turquoise waters, a little boat beached as if someone just landed, and palm trees. The palm trees are vexing me. I just can't seem to get them right, although I have worked them over and worked them over, changing techniques, colors, stroke patterns, all to no avail. Yes, they are looking better, but still not right. Meanwhile I'm happy as a clam with the beach and the water and the vibrant blue sky.

I got to meandering about how creating a painting is like creating a life.

First, I picture what I want to appear. Then, I start the process by asking what do I need to make this happen? Do I have the right colors on my pallet? Do I have the right brushes? Is my canvas big enough? Is my vision clear enough that I can see the finished painting? Where will I find the time to work on this?

Then, I pick a starting point and work on one area at a time, just to get some background color on the blank canvas. As the painting progresses, I find myself working primarily on one area at a time, while making slight adjustments to the rest of the paining as I go along. Right now I think the sky is fantastic, the gently rocking sea is beautiful, the multi-hued sand of the beach is stunning, but those darn palm trees leave a lot to be desired.

Each time I start working on the painting, I spend a few moments examining my previous work. I look at each area of the canvas and ask myself, what does it need? Does it need any changes in relationship to the progress I've made in other areas of the painting?

Like life, this painting has to be balanced. Like life, sometimes there is an area that needs a little more work than the others. Maybe you have your own personal palm trees. Maybe your palm trees are your personal relationships that are rocky. Maybe your palm trees are your financial situation, or the job you don't care for. Maybe your palm trees are your health that is suffering from your bad habits. We all have our palm trees. We all try to balance our lives in a constant stream of tiny adjustments of this and that. We all have areas of our life that we are just in love with, and areas that need more color, more balance, more style.

In painting I work on the whole painting at once, but focus on one area at a time. It's like juggling. I got the water just right, but the sky needed more light. I got the sky just right but the water needed more motion. I got the water just right but the beach needed more color... and those palm trees, they need a lot of work.

My painting evolves each time I work on it. Each time I look at it I see something new, something different about it. Each time I view my painting I ask myself if this is exactly what I wanted or are there areas that need more work? There are almost always areas that need more work.

Today, as you view the canvas of your life, I wish you a insightful eye to see the delicate colors of your painting. Give thanks for the areas that are really quite perfect, and be honest with your self about the areas that are not. If areas of your painting need more work, I wish you a steady hand with your brush as you make the adjustments that will turn the problem areas of your painting into the brilliant, balanced landscape you picture in your mind.

Labels, Labels, everywhere....

I finally finished the labels for all these posts I've posted in the past year. Now you can choose a topic and go right to the posts that pertain. It's great when you are sending you friends, neighbors, co-workers, relatives and loved ones to this site to take a look, at some interesting thing you saw here. Someday when you have nothing to do, take a look at my "favorites" label.

I Dig The Huffington Post

Do You read Huffington Post? You know I had my cable cut the year I wrote my first book. Not being a great TV fan anyway, ( OK, except for Extreme Homes on HGTV, old movies on TNT, and The Weather Channel), I didn't miss it. So I never bothered to have it hooked back up when I was finished with the book.

I'm unplugged and proud of it. You might try it sometime. Just turn the TV off for a month. Then, if you really want to turn it back on, go ahead. After a month without it you might realize how much you don't miss it.

Even someone who doesn't fall for prime time needs a little news now and then and I get mine from Huffington Post. They have interesting opinions from people who would not get published by main stream papers- like Deepak Chopra on the health care crisis.

They have the news you get anywhere, plus the news that gets censored everywhere. You might find a different twist on current events in the pages of Huffington Post.

Speaking of censored, have you heard about the contaminated flu shots? I thought not. How about one peep on the situation in China and her captive Tibet on the 50th anniversary of the Chinese Invasion and the Dalai Lama's flight for his life to India? Nothing? Not a word about the thousands of troops stationed around the remaining monasteries? Hum, that's strange. News like that should make the papers...

They also have really cool stuff like this link to Neil Youngs new video:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neil-young/huffpost-video-premiere-n_b_173714.html

Did you know Neil has a car that gets 100 miles a gallon? Did you know it's a 50's caddy that probably weighs as much as a steam engine? (Why doesn't everyone have cars that get 100 mpg? Well, let's see, why would not benefit from cars that got 100 mpg?)

While you are there, check out the link to the late night roundup, the best jokes from the late shows presented for all of us unplugged people, and the link to Comedy Central, home of the best political commentators in recent years. And we thought the name meant it was a comedy channel. Thank goodness for that link, which gave me the Colbert Report, one of those TV gems that I had been missing with out even knowing it.

I have an Idea...

I saw an article recently that was describing a recent poll that found only about 40% of Americans live in the area that they really want to live in. ONLY 40% of people live where they want to! This I find appalling. And considering I'm one of the 60% who do not live where they want to, it's even worse.

I won't go through the whole long story , suffice to say I moved to a place that does not suite me so well, thinking it would be a short stay. I'm still thinking it will be a short stay, but in the meantime, it's a challenge. It turns out, I'm not alone. 60% of people, either by choice or unfortunate incident- or sheer luck of the birth, are sweltering in the Florida heat when they would be happier in the cool rocky mountains, are shoveling snow when they would rather be sweeping sand, are crowded by trees when they would rather be in the wide open desert, or maybe they are choked by the activity in a large city, when they would be happier in a small town, or they are dying of boredom in a small town when they would flourish in the big city.

No wonder then, that we have so much crime, so much violence, so much escapist activity going on here. No wonder there are so many people finding relief through drugs, alcohol, tobacco and TV.

I have an idea, I think it might help. Right now the government wants to throw some money at all our problems. Right now a lot of people are out of work. I think they should give relocation relief money to anyone who applies.

Let each person decide where they want to live based on their own criteria for what makes them happy, rather then where they can get a job, or where their family settled 3 generations ago, or where they went to college and never had the means to move away from. Let each person decide where they want to live, and help them move there before we start throwing money at work programs. Once everyone shuffles around to their ideal location, the face of the country is going to look much different. Some places may gain a lot of population, some may loose. Once we see the results of this stirring of the melting pot, we can decide where to use the relief money to create more jobs, based on the new demographics.

I suggest this because if we just start creating jobs with out asking people where they want to live, we are going to end up with a lot of people moving to get employment, and possibly a lot of people moving to places they would not be happy. Ultimately, that is going to add to our demise as a nation. I just think we should do it the other way around, let people decide where they want to live, then make work for them. The happiness this creates could reverberate through generations.

I wonder, if we all lived in the area we think we would be most comfortable in, what would our culture look like. Would some of our problems go away? Would we be less inclined to indulge in unhappy behavior like addictions? I think so. Now, don't get me wrong, some people will just take their problems along with them, and some people will never be happy, no matter where they are. I do think though, that waking up, looking out the window and seeing landscape you love, or a town that fits you goes a long way in making a person feel good about themselves, and their life. And I do think, as a nation, and for the mental health and happiness of individuals, that is just what we need right now. A lot of people waking up feeling good about themselves, going about their new jobs in a environment that makes them feel buoyant every time they look out the window or step out the door.